A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

The press releases keep coming. One from Chris Coons,
the Democratic senator. Another from Beau Biden, the
Democratic attorney general. Still more from a trio of
labor unions and from Tom Gordon, New Castle County's
Democratic executive.

Also a new round from Coons and Biden, all of them
part of a persistent drumbeat of the same message, or
maybe more precisely, the same-sex message?

"Equality under the law is a founding principle, but
we will not all be equal until everyone has the freedom
to choose whom to love and whom to spend their lives
with. It is unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples
the freedom to marry," one of Biden's press releases
read.

This is the alliterative arc that President Obama
traced in his second inaugural address, the one from
Seneca Falls for women's rights to Selma for civil
rights to Stonewall for gay rights.

The clock on gay rights is ticking very fast now,
here in Delaware and elsewhere.

Just in the first term of Jack Markell, the
Democratic governor, a gay rights bill and civil union
bill were signed into law, and now in the opening months
of his second term, a same-sex marriage bill is expected
to be introduced in the General Assembly this spring.

"We want to be the 10th state -- the 11th if you
include the District of Columbia -- to show the basic
human decency that comes with offering full marriage
equality," Coons said in a press release.

Delaware, the 10th state. Not exactly the
usual rallying cry around here, but it will have to do.

When the same-sex marriage bill is formally proposed,
it will set up a curious civic footrace between the
state legislature in Dover and the Supreme Court in
Washington, where the justices have two cases involving
same-sex marriage on their docket.

Both the legislature and the court end their session
on June 30, so the rush is on for who will decide first,
no matter whether it is up or down. History is burning
to know.

The push for same-sex marriage here is being run like
a sophisticated political campaign, something of a
departure from the previous practices associated with
movements for equal rights.

No sit-ins have clogged the corridors of Legislative
Hall. No bras have been burned for the cause.

Instead, in addition to the press releases, there are
endorsements, like one from Markell, as well as
fund-raisers, phone banks, door knocking and a
consultant or so, a great deal of it coordinated by
Equality Delaware, an advocacy group for lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender Delawareans.

Naturally there is a poll, too. Released earlier this
week by Equality Delaware, it showed a majority of
Delawareans in favor of same-sex marriage by 17 points,
with 54 percent supportive and 37 percent opposed.

National polls have shown similar results, not
counting the Fox News Poll, of course.

Still, there is only one poll that counts. That would
be the roll call of the 21 members of the state Senate
and 41 members of the state House of Representatives.

Like eggs before they are hatched, votes should never
be counted in Legislative Hall before they are cast, but
the early analysis, even before a bill is introduced,
has passage within reach.

"They're working from the ground up to get their
votes. I think they're pretty darn close, if they don't
already have them," said Pete Schwartzkopf, the
Democratic speaker.

The basis for much of the analysis is the
legislature's vote two years ago for the civil union
bill, which was adopted 26-15 by the House and 13-6 with
two absent in the Senate.

Since then, the House has lost only one of those
"yes" votes -- from Nick Manolakos, a Hockessin
Republican who was defeated in a 2012 primary.

By contrast, the Senate has lost three critical "yes"
votes -- from George Howard Bunting, a Bethany Beach
Democrat, and Liane Sorenson, a Hockessin Republican,
both of whom retired, and Michael Katz, a Centreville
Democrat who was defeated.

Unless at least one of their votes is replaced, it
leaves only 10 "yes" votes in the Senate, one short of
passage.

As a result, it ratchets up a lingering question
about what Cathy Cloutier, the Republican senator from
Brandywine Hundred, will do. In a famous vanishing act,
she was absent for the roll call on civil unions. There
were enough other votes that it did not matter then, but
it matters now.

It will be like the marriage scene from "My Fair
Lady," political style. Can someone get Cloutier to
Legislative Hall on time?